The Creepy Murder In Room 1046

- This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we cover the creepy death of Roland T. Owen. I gotta say, this one really gives me the willies.

- Gives you little goose pimples? - Yeah, I don't like it. There's, I read about this one at night.

Much like some of you watch this at night, and I was not a fan of some of the small details. There's things in this that just-- - Rustles your jimmies? - Rustles my feathers, yeah.

- Ruffles your feathers. - Ruffles or rustles, it could be either. - I don't think so.

- [Ryan] Yeah I think it could be rustles. - All right. - Well rustling you can like rustle through the brush.

- Agree to disagree. - Sure, whatever. On Wednesday, January 2, 1935 around 1:20 p.

m. a man calling himself Roland T. Owen checked into the Hotel President in Kansas City in room 1046.

Witnesses say he was aged anywhere from 20 to 35 with brown hair, a scar on his scalp visible above his ear, and a cauliflower ear. He was nicely dressed in a black coat. The bellboy, Randolph Propst helped Owen to his room, where he reported that Owen seemed to have only packed a brush, comb, and toothpaste.

The maid, Mary Soptic. (laughs) - [Shane] What's her name? - [Ryan] Oh God, I know what you're, she's a maid, her name is Soap-dick hahaha.

- [Shane] I'm trying to move pa-- - What a really funny big laugh you got out of that. Yeah look how happy you are! Oh man, what a gem of comedy we've made here today.

The maid, Mary Soptic, said Owen allowed her to clean while he was in the room, but asked that she not lock the door on her way out because his friend was about to visit the room very soon. Soptic said that Owen kept the shades tightly drawn and the lights off with the exception of one dim lamp. Other staff members who entered the room also mentioned this detail.

- I don't want to be in the room when they're in there, that's scary. - Yeah. - I imagine him just sitting in a chair in the corner just a shadow man.

Clean it. Clean the room. - You, I think you're getting Anton Chigurh vibes from this guy.

- Fluff the pillow. (Ryan laughs) - [Ryan] According to the maid Soptic's statement to the police, she felt that Owen was quote "either worried about something or afraid. " End quote, and that quote "he always wanted to kind of keep in the dark.

" End quote. At four p. m.

, Soptic returned with new towels, finding Owen laying on the bed, completely dressed in the dark with the door unlocked. She also saw a note that read quote "Don, I will be back "in 15 minutes, wait. " End quote.

It's weird right? - [Shane] Yeah, I would not go back into that room. - [Ryan] If you were the maid?

- [Shane] No. - Yeah I think that's a good instinct to have. If you see a guy laying on a bed in the dark, awake, just like looking at you I think that's your cue to leave.

The next day on January 3, Soptic came back to clean the room at 10:30 a. m. She noticed that the door had been locked from the outside and assumed that Owen locked it as he was leaving the room.

However, Owen was sitting inside, again with the lights off which meant that someone else had locked the door from outside the room. While Soptic was still in the room, Owen answered a phone call and said quote, "no Don I don't want to eat. "I'm not hungry, I just had breakfast.

" End quote, repeating quote "no, I am not hungry. " End quote. - [Shane] What hotels allow you to lock a room from the outside?

- [Ryan] This hotel did. - [Shane] It's weird, I would imagine you could just call the front desk and say hey-- - I'm locked in my room. - Let me out of here.

- [Ryan] It's just my thought is who is this person that's locking him in the room or who is he waiting for that he's sitting in obedience in the dark? - [Shane] Well if this guy's a weirdo to begin with, he's got weird friends. - [Ryan] Okay I guess that's fair.

- [Shane] Weird attracts weird. - [Ryan] Soptic came back around four p. m.

to deliver fresh towels. She heard two male voices from inside the room. When she knocked, she heard a rough voice say quote "who is it?

" End quote. When she explained that she had fresh towels, the man said quote "we don't need any. " End quote, even though there were no towels left in the room.

During the night, a woman staying in room 1048 would report hearing loud voices, both male and female cursing on the same floor. Though there was apparently a party going on that night in room 1055. Now things begin to get very strange.

The next morning on January 4 around 7:00 a. m. the hotel phone operator noticed that Owen's hotel room phone had been off the hook for a while without being in use.

So, she sent the bellboy Propst upstairs to 1046. Despite the locked door having a don't disturb sign, Propst knocked a few times and heard a low voice say quote "come in, turn on the lights. " End quote.

However, the door was locked and no one was getting up to let him in. So after knocking repeatedly, Propst said quote "put the phone back on the hook" end quote, assuming that Owen was drunk. Around 8:30 a.

m. about an hour and a half later, the phone was still off the hook and another bellboy, Harold Pike let himself into the room with the passkey using only the light from the hall, the bellboy Pike observed that Owen was in bed, naked, and seemingly drunk. He also noticed that the bedding was darkened around Owen.

The phone stand was kicked over, so he fixed it and put the phone back in the receiver. - [Shane] They went in there and they saw this person on the bed with a dark, dark stains all around them and were like chill. Those are your sheets!

- [Ryan] He's obviously making himself into a sundae, nothing to see here. - [Shane] Right! - [Ryan] Let's go back down to the front desk.

- [Shane] Don't just leave, stupid. - [Ryan] At approximately 10:30 to 10:45 a. m.

, the phone was once again out of the receiver. They sent the original bellboy Propst to resolve the situation. When he opened the door, he stumbled upon a truly horrific scene.

Here's his statement to the police. Quote "when I entered the room, this man was within "two feet of the door on his knees and elbows, "holding his head in his hands. "I noticed blood on his head.

"I then turned the light on. "I looked around and saw blood on the walls, "on the bed, and in the bathroom. "This frightened me, and I immediately "left the room and went downstairs.

" End quote. - [Shane] It seems like everyone kept checking in to be like let's make sure nothing horrible is happening here. (Ryan laughs) Oh, seems like it might be.

We'll give it another hour. Then an hour later, okay yep-- - [Ryan] This murder's not ripe yet. It's not ripe yet for the plucking.

- [Shane] Yeah. - [Ryan] Also the way they found him-- - [Shane] Imagining that is truly horrifying. - He said he was within two feet of the door on his knees and his elbows holding his head in his hands.

- Like? - No not like that! He's not taking glamor shots.

Nice of you to come in. I'm dying. - Just blood?

(laughs) - [Ryan] Owen was discovered with extensive injuries. He had been tied up with the cord around his neck, wrists, and ankles. It appeared he had been tortured.

Blood had even gotten on the wall and ceiling above the bed. - [Shane] I'm a little tired of people being so aghast that blood is on the walls and the ceilings. Of course blood's gonna get everywhere.

If a person is beating the shit out of someone-- - [Ryan] It's also just, it's also I mean come on, it's a visceral thing to imagine that someone's getting beat so heavily that blood is spattering everywhere like a Tarantino flick. - Well yeah, well that's what happens. If you put your finger in a cup of blood and just went.

(laughs) - What okay wait a sec-- - There's blood on the ceiling. - [Ryan] He had been hit repeatedly on the head and his skull was fractured. He'd also been stabbed in the chest several times.

His lung was punctured. There was bruising around his neck that could mean he was strangled. Remarkably, Owen was somehow still alive though.

One of the detectives to arrive on the scene would ask Owen about anyone else who had been inside the room. Owen responded quote "nobody" end quote. Although he was hardly capable of talking and not fully conscious.

He explained quote "I fell against the bathtub" end quote. - [Shane] Hell of a fall. (Ryan laughs) - I know!

(laughing) So in this scenario, he falls against the bathtub, rolls over into the bed, and then starts bouncing up and down so the blood splatter goes onto the ceiling and walls. - [Shane] Yeah, and probably bouncing on the bed so hard that he hits the ceiling a few times and breaks all his bones. - [Ryan] And fractures his skull.

You know I bounced my head off the bathtub and I thought I'd go for a little bounce in the bed. - [Shane] Jesus Christ. And tied himself up somehow?

(Ryan laughs) - [Ryan] After this brief exchange, he was completely unconscious and was taken to the hospital. According to a doctor, the injuries on Owen's body had occurred six to seven hours prior to Owen being discovered. - [Shane] That's a long time to bleed.

- [Ryan] That means that by the time, when they first went to go check on him when the phone was first off the hook, he was already injured at that point. He was already bleeding out and still said come in, turn on the lights. Unless of course it wasn't him, it was Don waiting to do more murdering.

Detectives found no weapon nor any of Owen's belongings in the room, therefore removing suicide from the equation. Four fingerprints were found on the phone stand, potentially from a female. Owen would die after midnight on January fifth at the hospital.

When Owen initially checked into the hotel, he mentioned he was from Los Angeles, but Los Angeles authorities were unable to find any record of a Roland T. Owen, bringing into question whether that was the victim's real name. His body was placed for viewing at Melody Mcgilley Funeral Home.

As the story spread, more and more people began reaching out to Kansas City authorities to see if their missing loved one could be Owen, to no avail. Next police focused on the mysterious Don that Owen referred to several times while at the hotel. Don was also conceivably the man with the deep voice that the maid heard through the hotel door.

Nevertheless, the police's search returned no results. Owen's upcoming burial was announced by the Journal-Post on March third to be in a potter's field. However, the Melody Mcgilley Funeral Home received a call from an anonymous individual who said they would send the money necessary for providing Owen with a proper funeral.

Somebody knows who he is and my suspicion, what if it's Don? Here 'cause like he-- - And Don is a very tough love kind of guy. - [Ryan] I suppose, there's two reasons why he would not give up his killer, right?

Love, or maybe he was being entrapped somehow. Like maybe there was some kind of leverage against him. - [Shane] You think this was a lover's quarrel?

- [Ryan] It could have been. - Hoh. - Why would he pay for his funeral if he killed him?

Or like and if it wasn't the killer who's paying for the funeral, why wouldn't that person just step forward and be like yeah, that's fucking Jerry. - [Shane] Right, the plot thickens. - [Ryan] It does indeed.

- [Shane] This is a thick-ass plot. - [Ryan] This one's thick. - This plot is thick as hell.

- Juicy as a juicy peach. - [Shane] Oh it's a juicy peach all right and I've got juice running down my chin. (Ryan laughs) - [Ryan] Sure enough, on March 23 money, bundled in a newspaper, was delivered to the funeral home from an anonymous sender.

Funeral flowers were anonymously arranged with the Rock Flower Company along with a card that said quote "love forever, Louise" end quote, placed on Owen's grave. - [Shane] Yeah I'm just gonna start sending flowers to people's funerals and say "love forever, Louise. " - You should just say "love forever, Shane" and a picture of yourself.

Like that. - But then people are gonna ask me questions like why'd you do that? And I'd say eh, it's a funny joke and they'd say this is a funeral you know?

(laughs) - [Ryan] Skipping forward about a year and a half later, in 1936, a friend of Ruby Ogletree found an American Weekly piece chronicling the Owen case. Upon looking at the magazine, Ruby would correctly identify Owen as her son who left Birmingham in 1934. Owen's actual name was Artemus Ogletree and he was only 17 years old.

- [Shane] Sounds like a Harry Potter boy. - [Ryan] What? - [Shane] That sounds like a little Hogwarts student.

Artemus Ogletree? - Oh, oh okay. I thought you were referring to the contents of the case, it sounds like the story of Harry Potter.

- [Shane] No, things turned out better for him. - [Ryan] Yeah I think he went on to have great adventures. - [Shane] Yeah he wasn't brutally murdered in a hotel room.

That would be a rough end to that tale. - [Ryan] Ruby Ogletree, his mother, had actually received three letters from her son in the spring of 1935. However, these letters were delivered after Owen's death and were typed, according to a sensational newspaper account of the murder case.

This was especially suspicious because Artemus didn't know how to type. This article also reported that the letter's tone was quote "slangy and unfamiliar" end quote to Ruby Ogletree. - [Shane] Is it weird back then that you could just pretend to be someone?

- [Ryan] You could still do that today. - [Shane] Nah. - [Ryan] I bet you I could check into a hotel right now and say my name is Ricky Goldsworth.

- [Shane] But then they're going to say do you have a credit card sir? - [Ryan] And I'll be like oh yeah, this is my friend. I'm just putting a, just a deposit-- - That's not gonna fly, they're going to put handcuffs on you right away.

Where'd you grow up Ricky Goldsworth? - Oh I grew up down the road. - Where, no, what city?

- Oh New York City. - You grew up in New York City? - This is happening in New York now.

- What's your mother's name, Ricky Goldsworth? - Lucy Goldsworth. - What's her maiden name?

- Lucy Gold. (laughs) - See, crumbling. - Well I wouldn't stumble like that.

I'd have a prepared response. - You'd be firing 'em off? - I'd be firing 'em off and I'd be like what's the fucking holdup?

(laughs) I'm trying to check into a room and you're giving me a goddamn inquisition? Is this how you treat all your customers? - All right.

- Who do you think you are? - That's fair, okay that's fair! - And I'd poke him in the chest like this.

- At this point I'm giving you a room, all right? You did it, you win. You win, Ricky.

- [Ryan] After some time, it was revealed that Artemus Ogletree had also stayed at the St. Regis in Kansas City with another man, possibly Don. In the early 2000s, Dr John Horner, the author of an exhaustive account of the murder case published by the Kansas City Public Library received an out of state call about Artemus Ogletree.

The caller claimed to find a box containing newspaper articles about the Ogletree murder in a deceased elderly person's belongings. According to the caller, there was something else in the box. Something else that had apparently been referenced in the newspaper articles.

Unfortunately, the caller did not say what that item was. After that, the case would have no further revelations and would disappear into obscurity. And with that, let's get into the theories.

The first theory is rather simple, that the man referred to as Don beat Artemus Ogletree to death in room 1046 and acted alone. As mentioned before, it came to light that shortly before his death, Ogletree had stayed in a different Kansas City hotel with another man, possibly Don. Don was also conceivably the man with the deep voice that the maid heard through the hotel door, but even if this theory is true, the police were never able to figure out who Don actually was.

The second theory is that the unknown Don didn't act alone. This theory relates to an observation by Charles Blocher, the elevator operator the night of the murder. His observation also perhaps sheds a little light onto who Don could be.

The night of the murder, Blocher saw a quote "commercial woman" end quote, going to the tenth floor. The elevator operator estimated that the woman was 135 pounds, and about 5 1/2 feet tall. She had dark hair and was wearing a quote "coat of Black Hudson seal or imitation Hudson seal" end quote.

- [Shane] What is the commercial, what a commercial woman? - [Ryan] She looks like she was dressed in very nice clothing, so they called her commercial woman. - [Shane] What?

- [Ryan] Anyways, I didn't make up the name, that's what they called her. - [Shane] She looked like the Pin-Sol lady. - [Ryan] Yeah sure, yeah she was hanging out with the Brawny guy.

- [Shane] She was next to a big, tall bald man in a white t-shirt. - [Ryan] Yeah it was her, Brawny, and Mr Clean. They all went and they just went off on little adventures.

Blocher claimed this woman was looking for room 1026 to meet a man she was unable to find. It's possible that this woman was looking for Ogletree, and had mistaken room 1046 for 1026. This commercial woman was also seen with a man from the ninth floor, a man that the elevator operator said was the same height and weight as the woman.

Some speculate that this man could have been Don. If you'll recall, there were fingerprints potentially from a female found on the phone stand, and a woman staying next door in room 1048 reported hearing loud female and male voices cursing, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect that this commercial woman and the man from the ninth floor could have been responsible for what happened to Artemus Ogletree. However, there was nothing official on the woman or the man beyond what little was on the internet, and my own personal speculation.

The third theory comes from many sensational articles published in the following years that suggested Ogletree was killed for being unfaithful to his fiancee. I'd like to call to mind the announcement in the Journal-Post that Ogletree would be buried in a potter's field, the announcement that appeared to prompt an anonymous caller to fund Ogletree's funeral. According to a sensational article, published in the Newcastle Sun, called Mystery Murder in Room 1046, that sequence of events went a little differently.

The article states that a woman called the local paper to say quote "you have a story in your paper that is wrong. "Roland Owen will not be buried in a pauper's grave. "Arrangements have been made for his funeral," end quote.

- [Shane] I'm gonna start using it. - [Ryan] A pauper's grave? - [Shane] Well just a pauper's as sort of a descriptor.

Like if I get a subpar salad. - [Ryan] Oh, this is a pauper's salad. - [Shane] I will not eat this pauper's salad.

- [Ryan] Or if you get like a hotel room that just has a view of the parking lot or the freeway. I'm not gonna sit in this pauper's hotel room. - [Shane] Front desk?

Yes, I will not accept this pauper's view. - [Ryan] This is Ricky Goldsworth, you know what the deal is. Do you want me to come down there again?

Didn't think so. - [Shane] Man that guy's scary. - [Ryan] Yeah he's really scary.

When asked to identify herself and what actually happened to the man still known as Owen at the time, she replied quote "never mind, I know "what I'm talking about, "he got into a jam," end quote. Before hanging up the phone. At the same time, a man called the funeral parlor where Owen was held, and said quote "don't bury Owen in a pauper's grave.

"I want you to bury him in Memorial Park Cemetery. "Then he will be near my sister. "I'll send funds to cover the funeral expenses" end quote.

- [Shane] These people hate paupers! - [Ryan] I think maybe that may have just been slang for the time. - [Shane] Was it?

- [Ryan] I mean it seems, unless these two people just love saying pauper's, either way the more important detail to mine from that is the fact-- - Sister's grave. - Sister's grave. - [Shane] Did they look into the cemetery and see what-- - [Ryan] We're gonna get into that right now.

- Great. - Well kinda. The man apparently explained that Owen had jitled a girl he was engaged to, and that in room 1046, Owen the man and the jilted girl had a quote "little meeting" end quote.

Before hanging up, he said quote "cheaters usually get what's coming to them" end quote. Shortly after, the Rock Floral Company received a call asking for quote "13 American Beauty roses sent to Roland Owen's funeral" end quote. The voice added quote "I'm doing this "for my sister" end quote.

- [Shane] These poor people at this funeral home are just trying to make a nice little occasion for this brutally murdered man, and they have just this cartoonish cast of characters calling them up to deliver these grisly, grim messages. If I'm working at that home I'm just, I'm getting fed up. - [Ryan] You want to come do the job?

You want to do my job? How about I be you and you be me. - [Shane] Show up, why don't you bury them asshole?

(Ryan laughs) Stop just calling me, I'm busy! - [Ryan] It's fucking annoying. - [Shane] You know how hard it is to reconstruct this man's skull?

- Other than that, the mysterious death of Artemus Ogletree has been left to collect dust on the shelves of investigators, with no other possible leads or clues. To this day, it is unknown what truly happened in hotel room 1046. Was Ogletree held prisoner?

Was he actually punished for cheating on his fiancee? The case will unfortunately remain unsolved. (eerie music) After I read about this case, I was in a weird head space so I watched clips of people falling on YouTube to go to sleep.

- You watched people falling-- - Yeah like a compilation of people falling down. That's what I did. - That's a weird way to make yourself-- - Well you know what?

Better to think about that then think about a guy in prayer hands bloodied on the floor. (laughs) On his hands and knees bleeding to death. All right, well that's that.

- You think they cleaned that hotel after? - Sure, oh that maid probably had to clean it. - I don't even want to think about that.

- Anyways, get out of my house.